Deranged surgeon and would-be alchemist Oliver Haddo learns from an ancient text that the heart's blood of a virgin is needed to reanimate a corpse. So Dr. Haddo hypnotizes beautiful sculptress Margaret Dauncey and spirits her off to his crumbling castle laboratory with evil intent. Based on the 1908 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Some of the visual effects will be familiar to later 1931 "Frankenstein" fans.